Hello AMAZING friends and family!!! It feels just like yesterday that I was writing out my last weekly email, but here we are again! Not going to lie this week has had its ups and its downs but regardless it is always a wonderful privilege to be able to be able to serve our Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ. A topic that has been on my mind a lot recently is the importance of love, not only to one another as spiritual brothers and sisters, but to our Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ. One of my favorite scriptures on the topic of love is Deuteronomy 6:5 which says, "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might". To love our friends and family is wonderful, but to love our friends and family with Christlike love anchored in Him is truly exceptional. Unfortunately, loving one another sometimes isn't the easiest thing to do, in fact sometimes it can be crazy difficult. But when we put our faith in Him and let his heart of grace and mercy replace ours of pride and anger, our relationship with Him and those we try to love is immediately elevated. In the words of President Russel M. Nelson "Love of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ provides the illumination, inspiration, and motivation to love others in a loftier way". My wonderful spiritual brothers and sisters, I love you all so much!!! I have learned this week that it can be hard to love one another, but when we put faith in Him, the very same person that unconditionally loves everyone, our hearts will be softened and we will gain a deeper desire to love one another as He so loves us.
So, as you can probably guess the weather out here in North Dakota is straight cra cra! We have been in the 40's or low 30's for over two weeks now (low key the biggest miracle for all international missionaries that served around the equator) but we have been having some crazy "fog storms''. According to the locals these "fog storms" are even worse than normal snow, wind, or rain because it coats literally every surface in an inch thick layer of completely transparent ice making driving and walking straight up impossible- or so we thought. On Saturday morning Elders Bichon, Post and I went to go help set up chairs for a funeral that was being held at the church, so we walked outside to the lovely 38 degree weather and then immediately started slipping and sliding down the sidewalk to the parking lot. I had the pleasure (if you could call it that) to drive our rear wheel drive car that low-key gets stuck in an inch of mud down the ice path of death-yay. Let’s just say I have checked repeatedly sliding backwards down a hill into the temple parking lot off my bucket-list.
In addition to the "fog storms" advertising has also been very eventful. President Howell somehow set up a meeting with one of the heads of marketing and advertising for the Church's websites and Social Media pages to meet privately with Elder Post and I to discuss how we can continue to further the work through advertising. In the end, the biggest decision/suggestion that he made was to "literally double our efforts". This means that our advertising budget is now doubled, Elder Post and I now need to double the amount of ads we produce to compensate, and ultimately double our research and testing as we spread (like the Coronavirus) onto new social platforms. So yah, needless to say it's great to be progressing and have the head of Comeuntochrist.org advertising say you're ready for the next step, but man is it stressful!
FRIENDS UPDATE!!! This week was pretty good with people that we have been teaching and there have definitely been miracles along the way. Eugene is still progressing, but recently has told us that he wants to quit his job and become a pastor for another "true church of Christ". Needless to say, we will be going over lesson one again and continue to teach with love and patience. Recently we have started doing a ward volleyball night where we invite all young single adults as well as people we are teaching to meet one another and hopefully build friendships while also having fun playing volleyball. It has been a huge success so far and a couple of non-members that we invited even came to church the next day! With Elder Bichon moving in with us we also want to try and focus on our area a little bit more so we tried calling about twenty part member families to see if we could meet them and possibly share a short lesson, but something even cooler happened! It was my turn to call a family and the number listed was disconnected, we then searched their name on white pages and found that there were seven different phone numbers listed under the individual’s name. On the last phone number listed someone picked up the phone and..... it was not him, but instead it was a person that said he wasn't interested in religion. I was about to wish him and hang up till Elder Bichon swooped the phone and asked why he is atheist. Well, it turns out he's not atheist but instead constantly struggling with demons possessing his basement and Elder Bichon told him we would be coming over at 7pm on Tuesday and cast out these evil demons. Low key I'm terrified, but hey it's a teaching opportunity so you can't be too terrified.
All in all, North Dakota is popping and I love every second of it!!! Please know that I love you all so much and that you are all absolutely amazing and wonderful spirit sons and daughters of a loving Heavenly Father and that you can do anything! Love you all so much and I look forward to writing to you next week!
- Elder McMullin :)
Pictures:
1-2) District Photos with a twist!
3) Weekly Planning on the ground with blankets and pillows
4) I FINALLY found a soda shop in Bismarck!!!!!
5) Good ol' North Dakota Winters!!!
